Month: July 2018

Sesame Saturday: Sesame Monsters Versus Letter People–Who Sang It Best?

Mary A. Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

I was recently introduced to a Sesame song/skit that I didn’t remember seeing before, in which Cookie Monster and Herry find a letter M sitting around, (as you do), and sing a song about all the foods they like that start with M:

It reminded me of another beloved PBS puppet show that I remember fondly from my childhood, “The Letter People,” which was divided into 15-minute episodes and focused on phonics. Mr. M is featured in the first episode and sings his signature song, which also includes a litany of foods that start with the letter M, because Mr. M has a Munching Mouth, and that’s where he gets his sound:

Hmm…Cookie Monster also has a Munching Mouth. I wonder if he and Mr. M would be friends or if they wouldn’t get along because they’d be in competition with one another.

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Short but Sweet: Steve Whitmire Q&A From Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, TN

Mary A. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

A few weeks ago I got a Google alert on a brief interview that Steve Whitmire gave to a local news station in Knoxville, TN regarding the Fanboy Expo that was going on there. I hoped that would not be all that we heard out of Knoxville and happily, it is not. 

This morning, YouTube helpfully and accurately suggested that I might like this 25-minute Q&A that Steve gave at the Fanboy Expo. This panel was recorded and posted by Joseph Scarbrough, a name I recognize from the Muppet Pundit forum, even though I don’t think I ever interacted with him there, but a big “thank you” to him on the off-chance that he’s reading this.

This panel is a little different than some of the other panels we’ve seen. It’s shorter by approximately 20 minutes, and instead of the moderator sitting up front with Steve and asking him questions that we’ve already heard a gazillion times, he stood in the audience and helped with their questions. The whole thing pretty much consists of audience questions, so in that sense, it’s a true Q&A

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Google Alert: “Live” Steve Whitmire panel at Florida Supercon

Mary A. Tags: , , 3 Comments

This alert was sent two hours ago and I’m just seeing it now, so I don’t know how “live” it is, but it’s a video of Steve doing a panel discussion in Florida, and I’m watching it now. Check it out:

Oh, I didn’t know it was going to embed itself.  Cool!

It’s good that Steve has something to keep busy with while the O2 show’s been going on the in UK. I imagine that still has to sting at least a little.

Oh, I just realized that this is from several days ago, so it’s not live as in “happening this very minute,” but it was recorded live, and now it’s available for us to watch, so yay!

Muppet Babies 2018 Review: Part 2

Mary A. Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I could sure use some happy right about now, so here is my tragically belated and unreasonably long continuation of my review of Muppet Babies 2018.

(Part One of my review can be found here.)

Initially I was only going to watch and review the first episode of Muppet Babies because it was available for free on Amazon and YouTube.  Then I saw that episode 5 was going to feature characters of Steve’s, including Rizzo, and I was very curious to see how they would handle them, so I purchased and watched that one too.  Here I’ll be reviewing all four of the stories that I saw over the course of the two episodes.

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The World Turned Upside Down

Mary A. Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

As I mentioned previously, I still have feelings I need to work through in regard to the Schism, starting with how I first found out about it. It was through this disturbing introductory bit on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert:

It wasn’t just that the bit was tacky and unfunny; it was that they didn’t provide any explanation afterward. I sat through the entire subsequent monologue on the edge of my seat, screaming at the TV, “What’s going on with Steve Whitmire and Kermit?!? You can’t just turn my world 90 degrees on its axis without further comment or followup!”

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Sesame Saturday: Sesame Celebrates the Fourth…Ay, yi, yi

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For whatever reason, Sesame Workshop chose to mark the occasion of the Fourth of July this year with a parody of NSYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye”:

Okay, so let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat: This video is not good. The reference is dated, it’s not close enough to the original to be readily recognizable, Ernie sounds like Walter in spots, and what the heck is up with the gratuitous autotune?

With that said, I’m glad that they did something that steered clear of frank patriotism because, as I have observed before, it is difficult to take pride in a country where children are being put in cages, and given Sesame’s mission and ethos, it would be disingenuous of them to do so. 

I also enjoy Oscar’s contributions to the video because he’s basically saying out loud what I’m just thinking. And bless Matt Vogel’s heart, he’s in fine voice as the Count and really giving it his all. His level of commitment is admirable regardless of the overall end result.

Yeah…

SoDak Stuff FOREVER!

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In honor of the July 4th holiday, Tough Pigs had a feature in which they posted Muppet YouTube videos connected in some way with each of the United States (plus the District of  Columbia).

The video they used for South Dakota was kind of weird, but then again, it wasn’t their first choice. Their first choice was Muppet Mount Rushmore from “Sex and Violence,” but they couldn’t find it on YouTube. (Odd…I know it used to be there, although that was five years ago by now.)

Anyway, it appears that the states were listed in the reverse order that they were admitted to the Union, and they used “Stars and Stripes Forever” for Delaware in order to have a big finish.

Now, I’m not saying that “Stars and Stripes Forever” is inappropriate for Delaware, but in watching the video again, it seems to me that there’s a lot of South Dakota stuff in there as well. My contention is that “Stars and Stripes” would have worked just as well for South Dakota, and to prove it, I’m going to count all the South Dakota-related stuff in the video:

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Muppets’ Fourth of July: Before and After

Mary A. Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

This is what the Fourth of July looked like before the Schism:

This is what the Fourth of July looks like after the Schism:

 

CONCLUSIONS:

  • The Fourth of July was much more fun before Steve’s unwarranted dismissal. Now it’s apparently just tears and kazoo anthems against a plain background (not that I have anything against plain blue backgrounds 😉 ).
  • That said, however, I do enjoy Walter’s kazoo harmonies. 
  • Daaaaaaaamn, Steve as Beaker totally killed the piccolo part on “Stars and Stripes Forever!”
  • On a related note, I never thought I would say this, but I MISS RIZZO!
  • Sam the Eagle clearly stopped plucking his eyebrow(s) sometime between 2009 and 2015.
  • It’s really difficult to take pride in a country where kids are put in cages by pumpkin-headed demagogues, which is an incongruous thing to post on a Muppet blog, but it’s something that unfortunately has to be iterated and reiterated until our lawmakers get the point.

Another Panel Discussion with Steve Whitmire? Must Be My Birthday!

Mary A. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

It’s not my birthday today, but it was my birthday when Steve was in Ontario for the Niagara Falls Comic Con, so this video of a (the?) panel discussion he did there feels like a belated birthday present.

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